Greetings from Washington We add another state to our map!  Ya gotta understand that RV etiquette requires that you can't add a state to your map unless you spend at least one night in the state.  Driving thru doesn't count! It was  beautiful trip from Moscow, Idaho to Walla Walla, Washington.  I didn't know that there were wheatfields on mountains.  It was a beautiful drive. Even though I've done a lot of traveling in this country and all over the world,  I have been unprepared for the variety of the landscape in even one day of driving in the western U.S. Did you know that Eastern Washington is a wine region?  Hey!  That means we stay another day!  There are wineries and wine-tasting rooms galore all around Walla Walla!  

Time to leave now   It's 9am and we've taken our walk and washed the dog.  Jim is perusing the maps and the campground directories to see where we should go.  I like Moscow and the University of Idaho campus so much, I'd be happy staying here another week!  But, camped in this field, we have to depend on our generator for electricity.  It's noisy, it's smelly, and it's actually pretty expensive.  They turned the electricity off on Saturday morning - so, we've been on generator most of Saturday, all of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday morning, and we've use about 1/2 tank of gas.  Our gas tank is 50 gallons so that means roughly 25 gallons.  At $2/gallon, that's $50 for 3 days - just about the same as a campground hookup fee.  We really need to get better batteries, a 2000 watt inverter and some solar panels.  Then we can have electricity without using the generator much.  BUT, that'll cost us about $3,000.  If you would like to donate to the cause of reducing noise pollution and lowering gas consumption, what better way than to contribute to 'Odie's Roadies Solar Power Fund'!  Just click on the Tip Jar at the left and PayPal will do the rest!    Meanwhile, it is SO nice to know that we can park somewhere without hookups and get by - the generator does work very well.  I say it's noisy - but, it's nowhere near as noisy as most generators we hear.  This is the first time we've used it for 3 days straight and it's been great.  I've been on the computer for at least 6 hours each day.  And, we've been supplying Internet service wirelessly to the RVs around us as well.  Here's a photo of our trusty generator:      Before we leave, I need to post some more of the photos we've taken around campus.  We saw lots of pretty scenes AND, the 'Taking Great Photos' class during Life On Wheels was very inspiring:         That's it for Moscow!  Now we're off to follow the Lewis and Clark trail.  Then, we'll be visiting a park on the Oregon coast that just had a Coach Connect Wi-Fi system installed.

Living in a field of flowers   We're still in Moscow, Idaho.  The conference ended on Friday.  They kept the power on for those of us in the University's parking lot until Saturday at 10am.  We were allowed to stay there till Sunday, then we had to leave the parking lot.  We were told we could still park on the campus property, just not on the parking lot.  So, we're in an empty field right next to the parking lot with a few other diehards.  Diane and Andy are still here with us.  We parked awning to awning so we can just open both our doors and feel like we're in adjoining apartments.  They plan to leave today and head up towards Glacier National Park.  Make sure to watch their Blog (permanent link at left) to see photos of that spectacular scenery.   It has been so much fun to be with friends for this time.  We will miss them!  The other night, Jim got out the projection equipment and we had another 'Movie Night'!    Hey!  Our weblog earned mention on dailywireless.org!  Pretty cool.  At least I think that's cool ... I'm not really sure.  When I first started blogging in May 2003 I thought I was doing it just for me - I've kept personal journals since I was a kid - this was just a new way to do it.  I didn't even tell Jim it was there.  Then I decided that some family and friends may be interested in reading it, so I told them about it.  Now that we're actually on the road, it's gotten more interesting and I get a real kick out of discovering that we had over 1,000 visitors last week!   Odie has a girlfriend!  One of the other RVs parked in this field with us has a black miniature poodle named Amy.  What fun!     Boo Hoo!! Sob ... Diane and Andy left this morning.          Looks like we're staying at least another night.  Just too lazy to move!  Actually, Jim is still working on another RVers computer.  He's getting rid of some very stubborn viruses.  He also installed a couple of wireless networks in the last few days.  Hey!  He's earned enough to pay for our week at Life on Wheels!  Cool!

Where to now?   What an interesting lifestyle we've gotten ourselves into.  We've finished with the Life on Wheels week-long school and now we're looking at maps and saying, "Where should we go next?"   Wherever we want.   Ok, what do we want?   Take a look at this map.  We are currently located where the star is.  If you were here and could go anywhere, where would you go?     This is what I wanted.  I wanted the complete freedom that I had when I was 20.  I left college with a few friends and we just started driving and camping.  Each new day was a total unknown.  That lasted 2 months till we ran out of money and had to stop and get a job!  My memory of that time is what motivated me to try the RV lifestyle.  What hits us now that we're here is that we're not the same as we were when we were 20 ... duh!  When we were twenty much about life was brand new - that was normal.  Now, at 50 we have 30 years of life experience that has taught us what is 'normal' and how life 'should' be.  And, believe me this isn't it!  Normal is living in a house and having a job.   But, this IS what we wanted.  It may be uncomfortable not knowing where we're going or why, but that's the idea.  The way to grow and have an exciting life is to step outside of your comfort zone ... yes, it's uncomfortable.  But, it passes.  Then it's exciting to look at the map and plan.  Here's what we've come up with for our next stretch.     Whaddaya think?  Doesn't that look great!  The first part is continuing to follow the Lewis and Clark trail.  Purely by accident, we've covered a lot of their route this summer ... at this point it seemed so logical to continue.  We will follow the Columbia river and see the spectacular waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge.  Then the stretch of road down the Oregon coast and the Northern California coast is the stuff that travel magazine covers are made of.  Our goal will be Melinda's driveway near Lake Tahoe.  I think I'd like to stay there for about a month, like we did with Jimmy's driveway in Long Beach Island.   .... sssshhhhhhh - I haven't told her this yet :-)    

Life on Wheels is over :-(   The Life on Wheels conference that is.  I feel that our personal 'life on wheels' is just beginning since this is the first day when we have no destination.  We have to think and come up with where we want to go next!   What a great week this has been.  Imagine if you were changing careers and becoming a meeting planner, for example.  Wouldn't it be great if you could attend the annual Meeting Planners conference within a few months of making your decision?  That's what this has been like.  Think about it ... how many people do you know who live full-time in their RVs?  I mean besides us!  Not very many I bet.  Here at the conference we get to meet LOTS of them.  And take classes from many of the most experienced ones.  What a treat to meet Joe and Vicki Kieva who I feel we know already from reading their column in Highways magazine.  Then there was Mike and Terry Church who write the book on RV travel in Mexico, and the Pacific Northwest, and Europe.  We even got a peek inside their Bigfoot motorhome which they have customized to meet their particular lifestyle.  Here's a photo of what used to be the bedroom!     And, here's Mike in the living room area.  They took out the dinette and put in what looks like a sectional couch right behind where Mike is standing.  They obviously don't place as high a priority on sleep as we do!  Their bed is in the cab over area.       We learned so much from all these people this week.   We learned wonderful stuff Like this tip that was worth the price of admission alone!  Dave Baleria taught a class on GPS and mapping software.  We use a program called Mappoint along with a GPS receiver.  It's great.  The GPS lets us know exactly where we are at any time and the mapping software shows us all the roads, campgrounds, gas stations and restaurants etc.  Dave showed us a website that has lots of downloadable overlay files of other information.  Like all the dump stations in the US, or all the Camping World Stores, or all the City parks that allow overnight camping.  Way Cool! I just downloaded the file for hotsprings and now have the location for 1,437 hot springs all over!   We also learned how to write articles for magazines and how to submit them to editors.  We learned how to travel in Mexico and how to 'boondock' - that is live in your RV without any hookups.    We learned horrible stuff Like we have the wrong tires!  Yep, those brand new tires that we just bought.  They're not rated for amount of weight that we are.  It seems like the folks that sold them to us should have known to check that?!?  But, they were just replacing the tires we had on there - I don't know when those were put on, it couldn't have been from the factory cuz surely they know the right tires.  Tire and weight safety were major topics at this conference.  It does feel good to at least know about this stuff now ... I'm not sure what we're going to do about it.   We learned lots of useful little tips Like when you're cleaning and maintaining the outside of your rig, don't tackle it all at once.  Divide your motorhome into 4 parts: 1) left side, 2) right side, 3) roof and 4) front and back.  Clean and inspect one part every month.  Another tip was to pick up a business card from each campground when you register.  Put the card in your wallet, or on the dash of your towed vehicle.  Then, if something bad happens to you when you're away from your motorhome, the emergency personnel can know where your 'home' is.  We learned to adjust our side view mirrors so that the flat one and the 'wide angle' one overlap just a touch in the middle.   We met lots of other Datastorm users.  There were about a dozen here at the conference.  One afternoon several of us got together.        I love communicating via email, but that face-to-face is so special for really getting to know who people are.  Once they heard about what Jim does, several of them wanted him to come by and set up or fix their networks.  It's amazing how many folks are not only traveling with one computer but two!   As soon as we get rested, we may submit a proposal to be presenters at next year's 'Life on Wheels'.  There was a LOT of interest in computers, digital photography and Wi-Fi, and the people using their computers in their RVs need to know as much about how to use them as anyone else!  I was thinking about Jim doing a 'Basic Computer Maintenance' and I would do a 'How to share your travels with a Weblog'.  Whaddaya think?  Send us email (link at left) or leave a comment (link at bottom). Well, it's starting to clear out now.     Here's one woman we met, getting hooked up ready to go.  She's traveling solo with this big rig! Well, that's not quite true ... she has a dog and a cat with her.        And here's the Gypsy Journal folks taking down their manual Direcway Satellite dish.  They have a hatch in the roof of their coach.  Looks funny doesn't it?     Three months on the road We left Ft. Lauderdale on April 16 - exactly three months ago. Total Miles: 6,513 Total gas cost: $1,260 Total campsite rent: $931 Total RV maintenance costs: $1,013 (tires, oil/lube, loft project)   Hey!  It's July 17.  Happy Birthday Dad Guld!!